Parents Thought He Was Just Chubby, But Then The Doctors Rushed Him To The ER

When 5-year-old Mckenzie Watson’s face and belly started to get bigger, his parents thought that he had just been eating too much candy. But then one day, according to his mother he looked “as though he was nine months pregnant and about to pop.” Finally, he was rushed to the hospital.

Doctors shortly found out what was happening: Mckenzie had a rare kidney disorder called nephrotic syndrome that was causing his lungs to leak and fill his abdomen with fluid. A few hours more, and he would have died.

“It was so scary because his skin was so tight … as though it were a fully formed bump,” she said.

According to the American Kidney Fund, nephrotic syndrome occurs in around 2 in every 10,000 and is most common among 2- to 6-year-olds.

Though symptoms may be treated, there is no cure for the disease. “We have to give him steroids every day to stop his kidneys from leaking protein,” Watson said. “And now he’s having to have a daily dose of chemotherapy to hopefully kill off his immune system to stop it attacking his kidneys.”

“We know when he’s about to relapse too — if he doesn’t go to the toilet for a long time, that’s how we know,” Watson said. “He starts swelling up because his body retains the water.”